For the past few years, Nike has been facing serious problems with ethics and have been learning business ethics in the hard way. They have been trying to learn how to be more responsible and to give a better image of the company.However, since this scandal in an attempt to improve its image, Nike has worked hard to improve, not only redeeming itself but becoming an industry leader in ethics. Nike Ethical Scandal Nike's ethical scandal concerned poor labor conditions of its employees due to low salaries and poor treatment of its workers and cheap labor which in return affected their sales (decreased) and so did their profit. Therefore, their image to the costumers became weak and poor, so they lost several contracts with colleges. What the Ethical Scandal Concerned Since then Nike has been criticize for engaging in unethical employment practices in foreign countries where employees are exploit or where government is corrupt.In both ethical dilemmas that Nike was involve the company contributed to some of the ethical issues described previously. Nike was criticize for breaking human rights, child labor, working conditions, and unethical labor practices. Nike risked its reputation and to this day is still being criticized and judged.That Nike had no idea of what was happening. Regardless of this, Nike was held responsible and a “Boycott Nike” movement began. This movement monitored and reported Nike’s every action. Nike's defense to the case Business ethics is the study of business situations, activities, and decisions whereissues of right and wrong are addressed

(It is worth stressing that by ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ we mean morally right and wrong) Business Ethics Summary of the case in the legal, cultural and ethical challenges, is the understanding of the roles the host governments play, and the strategic and operational challenges faced are important to gain a thorough understanding of the issues and case

-Legally: child labor laws. "the company was labeled as forcing “children to slave away in hazardous conditions for below-subsistence wages"Activists criticized Nike for taking advantage of the workers overseas and placing them in a destructive working environment

-Cultural: the fact that Nike was making billions of dollars and still failed to provide a safe working environment only made matters worse, in addition, the living wage is a cultural expectation which Nike failed to meet that led to protests

-Ethically: Even though Nike was providing jobs to those who may not otherwise have one, it was paying “a mere $1.60 a day to Vietnam factory workers when the living wage is at least $3 a day” Another ethical issue involved “a report that found workers with skin or breathing problems had not been transferred to departments free of chemicals and that more than half the workers who dealt with dangerous chemicals did not wear protective masks or gloves” The Legal, Ethical and Cultural Challenges that Confronted Nike as a Global Business The Roles of the Host Government Played Many protests were organized, and Feminist groups also mobilized boycotts of Nike products after learning of the unfair conditions for the primarily female workers, and those groups created "Just Don't Do It" campaign against Nike products. Female workers in China, Japan and other Asian Countries organized hunger strikes. They lost several contracts with colleges because of the poor image had come from this scandal and they had to do massive amounts of public relations in order to get their business back. All of this work could have been avoided if Nike had implemented a corporate responsibility code in the first place. It should not have taken a massive scandal like this in order for action to be taken. How the Scandal Affected Nike’s Overall Business and Reputation Ethical Scandal Subject which raises questions about the standards of conduct which are being adhered to by the company as distinct from the financial results of the conduct Nike's Ethical Policy "Reaching a closed-loop business model where the goal is to achieve zero waste in the supply chain and have products and materials that can be continuously reused – no pre- or post-consumer waste"-Not to harm the environment-product quality sustainability-intellectual honesty NIKE The company’s three main product lines — footwear, apparel and equipment — are made in approximately 600 contract factories that employ more than 800,000 workers in 46 countries around the world. Nike is a widely recognized brand, which is the reason several other host governments became involved in the sweatshop case.A host government that played a role is “one-time hired U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Atlanta Mayor and Congressional representative Andrew Young”; his role was to “assess working conditions in subcontractors’ plants around the world